The Po Show

Responsible

I guess it's natural, when huge, gaping tragedies occur, to start pointing fingers. Who is responsible for this? Whose fault is it? WHO FUCKED UP??

Is the school responsible, for not alerting people on campus quickly enough that the initial shootings had occurred? Is the campus security responsible, for inadequately conducting the investigation? Is his department responsible, for not following up on repeated reports that he was writing some seriously twisted, deranged shit? Is his roomate responsible, for not trying to let someone know that he was clearly a very messed up individual? Is the resident assistant of his dorm responsible, for not trying to get him help? Is the administration responsible, for not following up on the attempt to get him counseling? Is the doctor who assessed him at a mental health facility responsible, for not diagnosing him as severely psychotic? Is the state gun licensing system responsible, for not refusing him the purchase of two guns even though he had been committed to the mental health facility, if only for a very short amount of time? Are his parents responsible, for letting him live by himself in the dorm, when it must have been apparent to them that he had serious problems? Are the other people who must have known him, like his parents' friends or relatives, responsible, for not encouraging his parents to get him help?

It's a long list, and I missed a lot.

It's way too easy to say "we're all responsible, because we have collectively, as a society, not supported the mentally ill." Though in a way it's true. WHY is there no support system that would have prevented him from crafting and carrying out this intricate plan of carnage? HOW can someone so obviously psychotic walk around and go to class and buy guns?

It's the same reason we see homeless people walking around, talking to the air and yelling at nothing. It's the same reason they find people dead in their homes, alone with 42 cats, and no one noticed for 6 months. The cracks are HUGE, and people fall through them, people who really need help.

Everyone's looking around them, wanting someone else to be responsible. Responsible for fixing and building and making things right, or at least humane. But it's too big, and too diffuse, and too abstract.

Who's going to be responsible?